Total Student Aid and Nonfederal Loans in 2017 Dollars over Time

In 2017-18, undergraduate and graduate students received a total of $241.3 billion in student aid in the form of grants from all sources, Federal Work-Study (FWS), federal loans, and federal tax credits and deductions.

Notes & Sources

NOTES: Table 1 excludes a variety of small federal grant and loan programs as well as some small programs for veterans and members of the military. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) and Federal Work-Study (FWS) funds reflect federal allocations and do not include the required matching funds from institutions. 2017-18 FSEOG, FWS, tax benefits, state grants, institutional grants, private and employer grants, and nonfederal loans are estimated from earlier data. Components may not sum to totals because of rounding.

The federal government’s share of total student aid increased from 67% in 2007-08 to 74% in 2010-11, but fell to 64% in 2017-18.

Loans made up 71% of federal student aid in 2007-08, but fell to 61% of the total in 2017-18.

Nonfederal loans fell from 25% of all education loans in 2007-08 to 7% in 2009-10. In 2017-18, 11% of total loans were nonfederal loans.

The share of federal student aid in the form of grants increased from 20% in 2007-08 to 27% in 2017-18.

Total federal grant aid rose by 88% in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2007-08 and 2017-18. During this 10-year period, veterans benefits nearly quadrupled and Pell Grants increased by 64% in inflation-adjusted dollars. Over the decade, Pell Grants fell from 78% to 68% as a share of federal grant aid and veterans benefits increased from 15% to 31% of the total.

In 2017-18, undergraduate students received 76% ($184.1 billion) of total student aid, including 95% of federal grants and 60% of federal loans. They received 86% of total grant aid from all sources and 63% of all loans, including nonfederal loans. The remainder of the aid funded graduate students. (Table 1)